


Love Without Trust

by materva



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Gen, fifty shades of trust issues, genny discovers the found family trope, genny's extreme little sister energy, pre fixit.. (maybe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:47:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23501818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/materva/pseuds/materva
Summary: When it comes to stray dogs, Genny gets too attached too quickly and Celica is pathetically soft-hearted.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Love Without Trust

Genny found the dog in Zofia Greatport, scavenging for food in some rancid smelling alley behind a butcher shop. She was supposed to stay with Celica and help carry the supplies they were shopping for - and she had _promised_ she wouldn’t wander off - but then Celica had paused in the middle of bargaining with a shopkeeper and turned to find just an empty space at her side.

She found Genny again at the other end of the main street, just in time to watch her toss the rest of the kebab Celica had bought her for lunch into the maw of one of the dirtiest creatures she had ever seen. The dog was one of those sleek, elegant sighthounds preferred by Zofian nobility - or had been, maybe, at some point in its life. Now it was more gaunt than slender, its fur was matted and caked with who knew what, and it was balancing on only three legs; the fourth leg didn’t quite reach the ground and the paw was visibly deformed, probably the reason why a clearly well-bred dog had been abandoned to the streets in the first place. It flinched every time Genny tried to move closer, hackles raised and fangs bared.

Of course Genny had fallen in love immediately, and she’d already named it - Lucky, of course, because of the luck he would bring them on their quest, that was always how it went in stories, you see?

Briefly, Celica regretted again that she’d let Genny come with them. She was immature and silly and thought the world functioned like it did in her daydreams, and she got attached to things too quickly. She also cried easily and Celica hated to see her cry, so she promised that they would at least feed the dog and try to find him a home in the few days that they would be in Greatport, though they didn’t really have the money or time to spare.

“Once you feed a stray dog, you’ll never get rid of it again,” Saber warned her, as if she didn’t already know, but once Genny got attached she would never let go and Celica couldn’t stand Genny’s begging and was pathetically weak to Genny’s tears. So when they left Greatport for the royal city, Lucky was following along behind them, walking with his rapid, almost-hopping gate, skittish but still willing.

\---

Genny was crying, her shoulders shaking and face buried in her knees. Lucky was watching her warily from where he was huddled at the edge of the surrounding forest some distance away. She had tried to pet him again, probably, and he had snarled at her, and her optimism had finally been broken under her hurt feelings.

She wasn’t alone though - Leon was crouched in front of her, offering a handkerchief to dry her tears. Their voices carried easily and for some reason Celica found herself retreating behind a corner before either of them could see her, leaning back against the wall as she listened to Leon’s brusk attempts at comfort.

“He hates me,” Genny was sobbing. “Why does he hate me?”

“Lucky doesn’t hate you,” Leon said impatiently. “You just scare him. He doesn’t want to be touched and every time you try to force him you just make him more scared.”

“But I would never hurt him!” she protested. “I love him!”

“How is he supposed to know that, read your mind? If you really love him, you need to get over yourself.”

That was enough to shock Genny out of crying.

Leon sighed loudly. “When I was a little older than you are, I was in love with this boy,” he began. Celica really had never met someone so eager to share stories of their past before. “I became a soldier because he wanted to join the army and I would have rather died than be left behind. Ironically, he was killed in our very first battle and I was left alone in a world I hated. Just the thought of living on by myself was unbearable--Oh, don’t you dare start again. I hate crying children.”

“Sorry,” Genny hiccuped. “It’s just, it’s really sad.”

“Obviously,” Leon said, though he sounded almost fond. “But it didn’t last. Soon after, I was transferred over to Valbar’s division and he immediately began to try to cheer me up when he saw the state I was in. He was always stopping by to chat or invite me to spar or to have dinner with his family. I pushed him away at first, because I was scared that getting close to another person would mean that I would inevitably get hurt again, but Valbar never gave up on me and eventually wore me down.”

Genny sniffled loudly. “That was really nice of him.”

“Valbar is the best person I know,” Leon said proudly. “The point is, the world is a better place when you love other people, but when someone gets hurt the pain can stop them from remembering that. Lucky has obviously been hurt by people in the past, so you can’t take it personally that he doesn’t trust you. You just have to follow Valbar’s example. Don’t give up on him, but be patient and stop trying to force him, and eventually Lucky will know he can trust you. Once he trusts you, he can learn to love you. You understand?”

“Yeah,” Genny agreed.

Celica left before she could hear any more.

\---

“I didn’t take you to be the eavesdropping type,” Leon said, but he seemed more amused than angry.

“I overheard you two talking on accident,” Celica assured. “I would not have brought it up, but I wanted to thank you for speaking with Genny.”

Leon’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t do it for you.”

“I though that it was inevitable that Lucky would become my responsibility once Genny realized how much hard work he would be.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t underestimate her next time.”

“Maybe,” Celica said. “However, I have watched Genny lose interest in things that don’t go her way many times in the past. What you said must have really inspired her, so I’m grateful.”

“It had nothing to do with you. I don’t need your gratitude.” Leon narrowed his eyes at her. Celica stared easily back at the bridge of his nose. “You are not the only one in the world who wants to help someone if they see them in trouble.”

Celica blinked. “I never said--”

“You seem to trust me to fight alongside you in battle, but you don’t trust me to show basic decency to a crying child. Do you think your allies are a bunch of useless good-for-nothings?”

That wasn’t even close to what she had said. “Of course not,” she said, pushing away a flare of irritation. “I simply wanted to thank you for doing something you did not have to. I didn’t mean it as a criticism at all.”

“And yet you came across as condescending regardless.” Leon affected an air of cool disinterest, but his expression was sharp. “I have noticed that you tend to try to take responsibility for everything you possibly can. I might suggest that you stop looking down on other people and leave some responsibility for the rest of us. The world doesn’t revolve around you - people do things with their lives without you there to tell them what to do.”

Celica crossed her arms to hide her flinch. “Well, you have my thanks whether you want it or not,” she told him, years of practice keeping her voice calm.

“Are you even listening to me, priestess?” Leon asked. “If you were eavesdropping, then you must have heard when I said that life is easier when you let other people in. I sincerely hope that you do have people that you trust, or else you must lead a sad, lonely life.”

Leon liked to be dramatic sometimes, but this was ridiculous. Celica was not a crying, immature child who needed to be told how to navigate life, and she had also had more than enough of trying to argue with men who refused to listen to her and acted as though they knew her thoughts better than she did. She had better things to do than humor Leon’s attempts to get a reaction out of her - if he was mad about the eavesdropping, then he could say it outright.

She left without saying anything further and ignored anything Leon might have called after her.

\---

Leon’s advice had its effect on Genny - her devotion towards Lucky turned gentle instead of overwhelming. She lectured the others on letting Lucky approach them at his own pace and everyone listened to her with good humor. Ever so slowly, Lucky stopped cowering away from them and began to creep closer and closer to their camp at night. The first time he was brave enough to snatch a piece of meat from Genny’s outstretched palm, Genny beamed brighter than the sun despite how quick he was to retreat away from her after.

But that did not mean that Leon was entirely, always correct, because he certainly was not. Celica  _ didn’t  _ look down on her allies - she did not look down on anyone - and she did trust her friends. And even if she did not, that did not mean that she did not love or care for them. She was definitely not  _ lonely _ .

It was only because she cared about the people around her that she didn’t want to burden them. They were already doing enough by following her across seas, over mountains, and into innumerable battles. In return, it was only fair that they rely on her to plan the way forward, to make sure they had enough provisions and adequate weapons to last them, to keep them safe and happy as they approached whatever lay in wait for them at Mila’s Temple.

Maybe she was constantly exhausted, always stressed, and often anxious for no reason at all. Maybe she sometimes grew nauseous at the thought of all she had to do, maybe all the secrets she kept made her feel trapped and choked, but she couldn’t just give up and abandon Mila, Alm, and the people of Zofia and Valentia. Not when they needed her and she had the ability to help them.

She knew what the right thing to do was: if she could bear everything herself, then she would. She hated the way she felt - and maybe, sometimes, all the time, she did feel a little sad or lonely - so why would she want her friends to feel the same way?

Perhaps Leon thought that love couldn’t exist without trust, but that was something he had learned through his own experiences. Celica’s life was more complicated than most people’s and she had different problems than he did. She would not hurt those she loved by relying on them more than she already did. She couldn’t live with herself otherwise.

\---

Evening in the desert was like a glimpse into infinity. The sky faded from deep midnight in the east to the burning remnants of a sunset in the west, and the cracked, dusty ground stretched out as far as the eye could see. It was almost addicting, how it made her feel so small she might as well not exist at all. She was just one tiny, unimportant speck in all of the vastness.

Behind her, everyone else was setting up for the night. She could hear the crackle of a fire, the rustle of tents, the unmistakable back-and-forth of Mae bullying Boey into some petty competition. It was selfish to just sit here while everyone else worked, but she couldn’t make herself move. She felt strangely displaced from the moment.

Her vision abruptly went black.

Celica inhaled sharply, blinked dry eyes, shivered. Her chest ached, had she somehow gotten so lost in thought she’d forgotten to breathe? Something was weighing down on her. There was the sound of a familiar giggle and Celica rolled her eyes in the safety of darkness before pulling her cloak off her head.

“Thanks, Genny,” she said dryly.

“I saw you shivering,” Genny scolded, hands on hips. “You know that it gets really cold at night. You’ll get sick if you aren’t careful.”

Celica wrapped the cloak around her and felt muscles relax that she hadn’t even known were tense. She sighed in relief and looked up to where Genny was standing over her, feeling almost as if she was the child between the two of them. “Thank you,” she said, more genuinely this time.

“No problem,” Genny said cheerfully. “You were watching the sunset again?”

“Would you like to join me?” Celica asked, even though only a few rays of light still remained.

“Sure!” Genny dropped gracelessly to the ground next to her. Her knee bumped against Celica’s leg. Celica resisted the urge to shift away. “It’s so pretty here,” Genny mused. “The desert really isn’t as dead and ugly as I thought it would be from the way people write about it in books. I’m really glad I get to see it myself, even if it is a little scary.”

“Scary?” Celica asked. They bandits here weren’t much worse than anyone else they had fought before, and they were definitely less intimidating than a necrodragon.

“Everything is so big and wide open here,” Genny said. “Sometimes I kind of feel like I could get lost and nobody would notice I’m gone. It makes my stomach feel a little funny.”

A familiar set of footsteps approached them before Celica could respond, and they turned to see Lucky, who had followed after Genny like he had recently taken to doing constantly. 

“Oh, Lucky, sweetheart, there you are” Genny cooed, and his tail waved gently back and forth.

Celica extended her hand and held her breath as Lucky hopped closer to sniff at it. His whiskers tickled her palm and he wagged his tail again when she huffed a laugh.

“He put his head on my lap earlier,” Genny bragged. “I mean, it was only for a couple seconds, but still!”

Lucky lost interest in Celica’s hand and went to curl up on Genny’s other side. The pale color of his recently washed fur caused him to almost blend into the sand. Genny smiled down at him, happier than Celica had ever seen her look before, and it was clear from the way Lucky stared back up at her that the affection was returned. Besides his deformed leg, he looked exactly like the spoiled pets she had vague memories of seeing around the royal palace.

“You have gotten very good with Lucky,” Celica observed. “It’s obvious that he adores you.”

“Thank you!” Genny said, glowing under the praise. “I really love him too.”

“Really?” Celica widened her eyes and gasped dramatically in surprise. “I would never have guessed.”

Genny stuck her tongue out at her and turned pointedly away, but she couldn’t quite hide the smile on her face. Together they watched as the sun’s light slowly faded away, but Celica stayed firmly grounded in her body and in the moment.

After only a few seconds of stillness, Genny started to fidget - playing with her hair, brushing sand off her skirt, constantly glancing up at Celica as if she had something to say. She was not normally so restless, but there must have been a reason she’d been looking at Celica closely enough to see that she was shivering after all.

“Genny, is there something wrong?” Celica finally asked.

“Nuh uh,” Genny denied too quickly. She hesitated. “But... I guess I do have something I want to tell you, but I don’t want you to judge me.”

“I won’t judge,” Celica promised.

“You better not,” Genny threatened. “Um. So you know that my father was a nobleman, right? And when we found him, you said that you think Lucky used to be a noble’s dog. So I kind of used to have this idea that my father could have been Lucky’s old owner and that Lucky was his favorite dog that got stolen from him like my mother stole me and that he was looking everywhere for us both and that he would find us and we’d all be so happy and me and Lucky would go to live with him-- Ugh! It sounds even sillier when I say it out loud.”

Celica tried to say something, but Genny suddenly pushed her face away, hand covering Celica’s mouth.

“Stop looking at me like that!” Genny complained. “That’s your someone’s-being-dumb face, you think I’m being dumb. I told you not to judge me!”

Celica pried at Genny’s fingers. “Genny, I don’t--” The hand being shoved into her cheek tilted her neck into a painful angle. “Stop it, Genny, I’m serious. It’s too dark for you to even see my face and I do  _ not  _ think you are dumb.”

“Whatever,” Genny huffed, pulling away. “I  _ know _ that I was being dumb. I used to have all these dumb daydreams of my father finding me, but I guess I realized that I’ve never actually believed in any of them. It just made me feel good to pretend that I did.”

Celica’s irritation vanished and she wrapped an arm around Genny’s shoulders, pulling her into her side. “Oh, Genny, I’m so sorry.” It was the only thing she could think of to say, even though it wasn’t anything more than a useless placeholder. She  _ had  _ thought that Genny’s daydreams were annoying and childish, but--.

“It’s okay,” Genny mumbled. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to cry or anything. I’m not even that sad because I realized that I actually don’t really want that dream to come true. I don’t care who owned Lucky in the past, cause  _ we’re  _ his family now. And even if I do meet my father someday, I don’t think I would want to live with him. He doesn’t know me so he cannot love me, so that means that he isn’t my family. My family is you and Mae and Boey and Leon and Nomah and everyone else, because those are the people I love.”

For a heartbeat, Genny’s words seemed to echo noiselessly in the air. Celica opened her mouth, but anything she could possibly say vanished before she could grasp it. Genny could probably feel the way her heart had started to race. It was not racing from fear, but she was--startled? Unprepared and overwhelmed? Her chest felt too warm, like it was being filled with hot air, but it didn’t hurt at all.

Genny wrapped her skinny arms around Celica’s waist, gripping almost painfully tight. “Families love each other,” she said shakily into Celica’s shoulder. “I love you. And you love me. Right?”

Celica knew that once Genny got attached she never let go, but Celica wasn’t the type of person anyone should rely on like that. She led the people who followed her into danger, she felt uncomfortable from even the smallest acts of intimacy. Why did Genny have to ask this of her, and not anyone else who would be able to give Genny the answer she wanted without any hesitation? She would live a happier life if she didn’t care about Celica and Celica would be happier without having to deal with the trapped, guilty feeling that came from knowing that there was someone she would inevitably let down.

She knew what the right thing to do was and it was the same as it always had been, but now she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Genny was braced for rejection, but she was hugging Celica like she was scared Celica would vanish if she didn’t hold tight enough. She shouldn’t have placed her heart in Celica’s hands, but she had and no part of Celica was willing to break it.

In the end there was never a choice, because Celica couldn’t stand Genny’s begging and was pathetically weak to Genny’s tears. There were some things that just could never be lied about.

“Genny, of course I love you,” Celica said, and the words came even easier than she expected.

**Author's Note:**

> genny: i'm dropping hints that i want to be loved  
> genny @celica: tell me you love me
> 
> anyways, leon is an overshare-your-trauma type gay, celica is a repress-everything type gay, and they refuse to try to understand each other, you cant change my mind. also little sisters are the WORST most ANNOYING things ever and i miss mine SO BAD


End file.
